"At a time when innocent women across the nation from Gujarat to Guwahati have been subjected to sexual abuse and humiliation, one wonders if Sherlyn Chopra's pictures wound a woman's integrity," blogger Gayatri Sankar writes on Zee.com.

But Chopra, who rose to fame through a series of bit parts in Bollywood films and who appeared as a contestant on "Big Boss," the Indian equivalent to "Big Brother," is undeterred by the criticism.

"I have become the first Indian to pose naked for Playboy and nobody can take away that achievement from me," Chopra tells the BBC.

"My sister is proud of my achievement. I haven't told anything to my mother, but I think I will visit her and tell her that she has to accept me the way I am."

Chopra tweeted a series of behind-the-scenes nude photos of herself from the Playboy mansion in Los Angeles, where the shoot took place, including one clothed version with Playboy founder Hugh Hefner.

"If u cannot put me on a pedestal,no problem....atleast do not take from me the joy n pride of my international accomplishment....." reads one of her tweets, posted shortly after the Playboy announcement.